Confrontation

The Alarming Situation of Sybil Trelawney

Students arriving at Divination Class the next morning found a note pinned to the bottom of the trap door that simply read:

Divinations class cancelled until further notice.

Rejoicing, they climbed back down the ladder, hurrying off to enjoy their free period.

Albus Dumbledore had not attended breakfast in the Great Hall, but he did show up at lunch, looking grave as he took his seat at the High Table. When the hall filled, he stood up and tapped his fork on a glass, the high pitched tinging ringing through the hall. Everyone stopped eating and looked up at the Headmaster.

“Professor Trelawney has met with a very unfortunate…er…situation, and is currently in St. Mungo’s hospital. Because of the ongoing investigation I am not at liberty to say what has happened to her. I can say, however, it will be quite some time before she returns to us…if she returns at all. A suitable substitute will be found in any case,” Albus said rather darkly, returning to his seat.

Everyone returned to their meal, murmuring about the mysterious circumstance surrounding the Divination Professor’s absence.

“Sounds like foul play to me,” said one red-haired student to another, “Why else would there be an investigation?”

“Yeah,” the other student agreed, biting into a tart.

Sybil had awakened on her couch in the living room, groggy from sherry and her face feeling strange, particularly when she tried to lick her lips and felt only teeth. She stumbled into the bathroom for her usual morning dose of sober-up potion, looked in the mirror…and screamed.

She had no lips and her teeth showed in a skeleton-like manner. She screamed again and again, finally stumbling to the floo, throwing in some powder and flopping through face-first into the infirmary.

For the first time in her life, Poppy lost her composure and screamed when she helped Sybil up and saw her condition. The medi-witch helped the sobbing woman to a cot, pulled the privacy curtain and summoned Albus immediately.

After several applications of calming draught, Sybil had calmed enough for Poppy to examine her.

“Her lips were removed somehow…and it was done by someone who knew what they were doing. The repairs to her flesh are seamless, with no scarring or raised areas. It looks as if she never had lips,” Poppy said, amazed.

Albus performed Legilimency on Sybil, but found no recollection of anything happening to her. Then he did a deeper spell, designed to reveal any magical manipulation of her mind. He found nothing.

Then, with several Aurors from the Ministry, Albus returned to Sybil’s rooms and carefully went over it, finding no trace of foul play at all. Not even as much as a drop of blood. They were all perplexed. How had this happened? Who could have done such a thing to the witch and left no incriminating evidence?

Albus then questioned the house elves to find out if they saw anything unusual in the castle the night before. They all answered in the negative.

Yes, Professor Lecter cooked a meal last night, but that wasn’t strange at all since he’d been doing it since he first arrived at Hogwarts. So the elves never even mentioned it.

As for Professor Lecter, he went about his business as usual. Schooling young minds in the subject of psychology, expressing only a passing sentiment of sorrow at Sybil’s unfortunate situation.

“How sad for her,” Lecter said soberly to Flitwick at supper that evening as he ate sushi.

“Yes,” Flitwick replied, “Too bad she didn’t see that coming.”

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A/N: Thanks for reading.